The substation topside built by Heerema Fabrication Group for the 336MW Galloper offshore wind farm has been loaded onto a barge at the fabricator’s Hartlepool yard.
Heerema was selected to fabricate the Galloper offshore substation by Petrofac which, in a consortium with GE, won a GBP 110 million contract to engineer, construct and install onshore and offshore electrical substations for the project.
The Galloper OWF is an extension to the Greater Gabbard Wind Farm, but is being developed as an entirely separate entity. The wind farm will comprise 56 Siemens 6MW wind turbines, expected to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2018.
The offshore site is located within the outer Thames Estuary, 27 kilometres off the Suffolk coast, in water depths of up to 39 metres.
GeoSea installed the 56 foundations at the site at the end of March, two months ahead of schedule. VBMS is currently installing the wind farm’s inter array-cables. The installation of the wind turbines is expected to start in the early summer of 2017.
Development and construction of the GBP 1.5 billion Galloper offshore wind farm is led by innogy SE on behalf of the project partners, UK Green Investment Bank (GIB), Siemens Financial Services and Macquarie Capital.